The explosions and red flames that had continued behind me had grown distant.
The outline of the ruins had changed as well. The towering building frames had ended at some point, revealing more shattered concrete ground and blackened soil. Contaminated dust drifted over broken road markings without so much as a breeze.
The presences writhing beneath collapsed walls died down.
The infected crawling across the ground crumbled away, leaving only husks behind. The turbid energy that slipped out from within them seeped between my scales.
The inside of my body was already filled without a single gap. My recovery had ended long ago, and the circulation was spinning tautly, as if ready to burst. Even so, the absorption did not stop. Energy that had nowhere to go coiled meaninglessly inside me.
― Hey. At this point, you’ve recovered and then some! How long are you planning to keep absorbing?
― The damage inside was fixed ages ago. Your circulation is back too. So stop already.
I know.
― Ha, you really don’t listen. Don’t ignore me. You’re clearly all better, so why do you keep looking for prey—
The AI borrowed my senses and swept through the inside of my body.
In that instant, the AI’s words abruptly cut off.
― ······Huh? Wait. That’s strange.
A moment later, its response came, sounding dumbfounded.
― You didn’t just recover. You actually grew after going through that whole mess? Just how much energy is compressed inside you?
― Then why are you still looking for prey first? Did that shock while you were molting really mess up your head?
It was then.
Three strong, alien presences brushed the edge of my divine sense.
Their wavelengths were different from the infected that had been scattered until just now. They were separate individuals, but the roots of their presences were the same. They were bound together strongly, as if they had branched from a single flow.
― Huh? Wait. They’re knight-class. Three of them, no less—
Before the AI could finish speaking.
My body had already shot forward along the ground.
Three figures entered my sight.
Black bio-armor. Pallid masks like bone plates. Black shells hanging down like mourning clothes.
The one in front was thick and low. Wrapped in layers of hardened carapace, it approached while striking the ground with its forearms. The one behind it had arms as long as spears, and the last one had thin tendrils extending along its spine.
A golden shade spread over my vision, sunk in black. The Ouroboros mark spun clearly inside my pupils.
As my divine sense caught their presences, the ocular art overlapped on top of it. The weaknesses where the armor of the three locked together. Those gaps were linked by thin lines.
The strokes of the Azure Lightning Talisman engraved on my scales heated up. The path of lightning energy meant to electrocute their insides meshed with the lines revealed by the ocular art.
Their masks all turned toward me at once.
Ground Shrinking.
Space folded. My body floated in the air above the first one’s head.
Shin.
I changed direction in midair. The Vajra Talisman gathered near my tail heated up and created a foothold to receive the recoil. Dense demonic power coiled over it.
My elongated tail struck down on the black carapace.
Kwaang!
The hard shell caved inward. From inside the carapace came a sound like bones being ground apart. At the same time, the blue lightning energy of the Azure Lightning Talisman dug in along the lines of the ocular art. Following the lines connected to the joints inside the armor, the electric shock burst outward from within.
The second one tried to thrust out its long arm, split at the end like a spear.
Before the arm could fully extend, the empty space inside its shoulder joint connected into a single line.
Ground Shrinking.
My body had already taken its flank. The lightning energy of the Azure Lightning Talisman crossed over along that line and struck the inside of its shoulder. The arm that had been reaching out bent at a grotesque angle.
Crunch.
Then my tail struck the area near its neck beneath the mask. The pallid mask did not break, but the armor below it caved in deeply, sending its body flying backward.
The last one retreated.
The tendrils running along its spine shot out all at once, trying to bind everything around it.
Chwarrrk.
Amid the dizzying trajectories, countless lines came into view. My divine sense seized its center first, and within the ocular art, those trajectories appeared to connect into one single line.
The Vajra Talisman braced the recoil once more. Demonic power condensed at the tip of my tail stabbed into the central area beneath its spine.
The thorns that had been stretching in every direction lost their direction all at once and scattered.
Crackle.
The lightning energy of the Azure Lightning Talisman seeped along the line into the inside of its carapace, twisting its entire body.
The three collapsed almost simultaneously.
I had not killed them. No, I had not been able to cut off their breath in one blow.
The one with its forearms planted in the ground had stiffened, and the one with the bent arm hanging loose could not stand. The one whose thorns had scattered convulsed faintly on the ground. From time to time, blue sparks burst from inside their armor.
It looked as though I had overwhelmed them, but the wounds were not fatal. Their tenacious bio-armor repelled my demonic power from the surface, and even the lightning energy that had dug inside had not completely burned through their joints.
One scale bearing the Vajra Talisman near my tail cracked and fell away. Several scales that had drawn up the Azure Lightning Talisman had also lifted, holding a scorching heat. If I wanted to cut off their breath completely, I would have to pour in more power.
I did not attack further.
Those three were not suitable as food for recovery. Their presences were far too identical, and they were strongly bound to something.
― Wait.
― Wait a second. You, just now······.
― Snake. What did you just do against three knight-class enemies? Did molting not just make your head go crazy, but turn you into a completely different monster?
Nonsense.
My gaze was not on the three fallen on the ground, but toward the depths of the ruins from which their presences had flowed.
At the end of the collapsed ruins.
There was another presence inside. It had the same root as the three that had fallen, but it was far clearer, colder, and quieter.
The infected drawn by the sounds of battle were circling the ruins. And yet they avoided that spot, as if leaving it empty.
Between the scattered embers in the distance.
A person was standing there.
At first, that was how it looked.
But the closer the distance became, the more my instincts sent warnings. The outline caught in my sight was subtly off.
It had a pale, gaunt build. It looked as though it was wearing an old, long black coat. When I layered the ocular art over it, the movement of the black hem looked different. Unlike the exterior, which swayed like fabric, the inside was closer to a shell that continued directly from its back and shoulders.
Hideously concentrated contaminated tissue.
It was not breathing.
There was not even the faint rise and fall of its chest. Only black holes without pupils faced this way.
Its presence alone was distinct. The scent of the same root, tenaciously entwined with the three that had fallen.
― Snake. Be careful. Its wavelength is completely connected to those three from earlier. That’s the main body.
I know.
The moment I recognized that thing as the main body of this group, a scorching heat flared from inside me.
Its presence was arrogant. A stillness as though it were only natural for everything around it to be beneath its feet. Strangely, that presence was horribly stimulating. Faced with a strong and alien being, something that had been suppressed boiled up.
I wanted to shoot across the ground at once and snap that thin neck. My scales lifted, and demonic power surged fiercely at the tip of my tail.
― Hey! What’s wrong with your condition right now?
The AI shouted urgently.
― Are you insane? Why are you suddenly spewing killing intent like this! I’m telling you, that thing is on a completely different level from those three earlier!
Noisy.
I was making an entirely rational judgment. It was only right to immediately remove the unpleasant thing blocking my path.
Just as my body was about to shoot forward.
《To what place are you bound?》
I flinched to a halt.
The other party had not opened its mouth. It had not even moved.
There was no sound. Instead, one turbid and heavy wavelength pierced the air and pushed into the center of my sensory net. It was not language, but intent carrying a clear meaning.
Something I had experienced before flashed through my mind.
Blackbeak. The one who had mimicked the wavelengths of the contaminated and trained them. But this was different. It was no imitation. It was the inherent wavelength of hierarchy, bending the surrounding presences beneath itself.
― Huh? What was that just now?
Right after the AI reacted in surprise, it rapidly poured out its analysis.
― It wasn’t a communication signal. The contaminated wavelength itself carried meaning and struck your senses directly! Then it borrowed the database inside your head and converted it into the closest language. It’s exactly the same principle as when you and I first connected and communicated.
That question rolled through my mind once more.
Bound.
Not long ago, Blackbeak had asked who my master was. This thing before my eyes was asking where I was bound.
Its pale head tilted a little further.
《There is no scent of entanglement. Nor can I see any root touching you. And yet you rendered my limbs powerless.》
Along with that intent, its wavelength pushed toward me once more.
This time, it was not words.
It brushed over the outside of my scales and tried to touch even the flow inside my body. It was different from inspecting my wounds or size. It was trying to find some trace it knew somewhere within me.
But that sensation could not remain for long. The wavelength that groped along my flow changed direction several times, then ultimately scattered beyond my scales without grasping anything.
I could not know what it was searching for.
Only the fact that it had failed to find it inside me was clear.
Wretched insects.
Can these things not exist unless they serve someone above them? Since their own necks are leashed, they assume everyone else must naturally be wearing a collar as well. It was laughable, the way they rummaged through another’s insides with that delusion.
A sneer rode my demonic power and flowed out beyond my scales.
Instead of finishing it off at once, I slowly lowered the tail that had been holding demonic power to the ground. Conversation was possible. If so, before dealing with it, finding out what I needed came first.
I loaded one sharp meaning into dense demonic power and threw it down at its feet.
《What are you?》
Only killing intent sank deeply over that meaning.