Chapter 342: Dragons, O Dragons! We Forge Ahead into the Unknown and Truth — Gods, O Beasts! Erythrocyte
The Great Red Devourer.
It devours organic life, replaces that life-form's constituent matter with material identical to itself, and absorbs the result as part of the Great Red Devourer.
Back in the Divine Era, the Crazed Horde of Blue and the Great White God drove Divine Era civilization past the point of recovery. Compared with them, the Great Red Devourer belongs to the relatively less catastrophic class. Even so, it is obviously an extremely dangerous existence.
It devours. It replaces. But that is not the true essence of the Great Red Devourer.
The Great Red Devourer bears a different red from the other crimson that lurks beneath a certain extinct volcano—the Red Tempered Greatwings. Its true nature is the manifested form of the erythrocyte, one half of the foundation of this world.
In other words, the link to the "───" shared by the New Land-side ──── (raid monsters) is the greatest trump card possessed by those New Land-side ──── (raid monsters), the kin of "────."
Great Red Devourer: "Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"
A scream echoes.
It recreates the death throes of Eldranza the Blue Dragon, whose corpse became the Great Red Devourer's base—the despair of a pitiful dragon driven mad when forced to face the fact that three monsters had taken its life.
It is nothing more than emotionless, inorganic movement recreating the last scrap of sound that dead body's vocal cords released. But as the red "imitations" split, separate, reconnect, and blend together in movements that seem to synchronize with that cry, the small figures who chose to stay and fight tense their faces.
It is almost like the pupa a larva passes through just before becoming an adult. The Great Red Devourer had gone berserk after multiplying too far and using up the prey that had served as vessels for it. By trying to forcibly replace Eldranza the Blue Dragon, its new base, it had swollen in size, multiplied its parts, and caused discarded masses of the Great Red Devourer to run wild semi-autonomously. Now, at last, the monster directs clear hostility at its enemies.
Great Red Devourer: "Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, ggaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa............!!!!"
A scream echoes.
The Great Red Devourer knows exactly what to do to gather its berserk, overgrown mass into one point and destroy its enemies.
The true nature of the Great Red Devourer is not merely replacement.
Replacement. Transport... and reversion.
But even that is only half of its true nature.
Sunraku: "Oi, this is bad."
Deep Throater: "A stake... top to bottom... Oi, oi, look at that, Sunraku-kuuun. The bastard's planning to insert itself into the earth!?"
Sunraku: "Can we stop it...? No, impossible."
The Great Red Devourer's true nature lies in the service it provides as blood, and in the backup it can draw on because it is the same existence as the original source.
The spherical mass of flesh reshapes itself into something like a gigantic cone. Its point faces not the sky but the ground, and as its slow initial movement accelerates into faster and faster rotation, its shape becomes unmistakably that of a drill.
Deep Throater: "Piston plus spiral rotation... motion that's hard to reproduce with the human body. Don't tell me its true identity is a vib—"
Sunraku: "Areadbhair!"
Deep Throater: "Not the nape—!"
The Great Red Devourer did not understand the stupid conversation, of course. But by sheer coincidence, the instant its tip bored into the earth landed with timing so perfect it was almost like a straight-man retort.
[The Great Red Devourer's power circulates—]
[Crimson memories swirl—]
[Origin Reversion: Primal Revolve!]
As though pooled blood were returning to its proper circulation. As though the overflowing blood were entrusting itself to a vessel large enough to receive it.
Deep underground, beyond the perception of the two pioneers, the red touches the root.
The next instant, vivid-red "red" erupts like a geyser from the huge hole bored by the awl-shaped Great Red Devourer.
And that is not all. Throughout the ruined village where elves once flourished, thick pools of red spread as opaque-glimmering crystals sprout from the blood and rise high.
Great Red Devourer: "Qurororororororororo............"
The crimson pillar of blood stops. With the energy from below cut off, the red that splashed across the ground gathers back into a single point.
First, legs are formed.
A skeleton builds itself from belly to back, then flesh, skin, and scales cover it layer by layer.
Its shape is that of the now-dead Eldranza the Blue Dragon. But there is one decisive difference from its earlier form: the wounds Eldranza suffered at the moment of death have been crudely patched, as though with clay, using the traits of other living creatures.
More importantly, this is nothing like the ugly fusion produced earlier by different masses fighting over resources. What stands there now is the remains of a dragon corpse that has multiplied its parts with a clear understanding of their purpose.
The crimson origin roars. Four necks rise from its torso. Mouths have grown from its newly acquired pair of wing-arms. Another huge mouth fills a wound in its torso. Seven mouths in all tremble as it roars.
The roar declares that it has eliminated the possibility of destroying itself—and, more than anything else, that it will certainly reap the two tiny lives before it.
Pressure prickles across my skin as if I were being burned by flame. That old thought—Games have evolved this far?—has already been blown far away after more times than I can count.
This is different from Lycagon's playful presence, different from Wethermon's intent to eliminate, and different from Goldhuneenay's boiling killing intent.
There is no biological emotion in it at all. A guillotine or an electric chair has no malice. A tool that simply performs the role assigned to it according to the laws of physics does not feel anything about taking a life. Intent? Function? Presence? I cannot think of the right word, but right now I am certain of one thing: this thing exists simply to kill Deep Throater and me.
Sunraku: "...Deep Throater, can you record video from behind?"
Deep Throater: "Who knows... Even if I can, it'll probably just be footage of us getting instantly killed... It's coming!"
Sunraku: "Ngh—!?"
Deep Throater: "Bgh."
This movement is different from the first phase, which looked like an aquatic creature being forced to move on land. It is also different from the second phase's absurd movement, which looked like it had simply declared the ground to be water.
With warped legs that look as if extra parts were bolted onto its flippers to announce, Now amphibious!, the enormous mass genuinely kicks off the ground and charges straight at where Deep Throater and I are standing.
Unlike its earlier half-torn, unstable form, which lacked strength and simply swayed with the laws of physics, this bite has bone and muscle properly connected behind it. Its jaws clamp down on Deep Throater.
I dodge at the last possible instant, but the sudden evasive movement throws me off balance. At that moment, I meet the eyes of the other three necks besides the one biting Deep Throater and carrying out a trip to the next world.
Sunraku: "Oi, oi, such passionate gaz—wait a second, why are the backs of your mouths glowing—NAAAAAAAH!?"
A-at least Levin Trigger: Hazard... No. I won't make it. Whatever happens, I have to get out of the breaths' kill zone.
Sunraku: "Ghh... 【Apport】!"
I pile an instant teleport on top of an already forced posture. It will definitely leave me open for a few seconds, but I have to escape a triple-breath attack that means certain death no matter what.
With my neck twisted around, I shift my coordinates into empty air and then, almost absentmindedly, turn my head to the side...
And meet the eyes of a fifth head growing from the tail.
Sunraku: "Oh shit..."
Yeah. This is no good.
Great Red Devourer: "VoooooaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAARARARARARA!!!!!"
Crimson light erupts. Completely off balance in midair, even I cannot dodge it.
The red light swallows my body and shaves away my HP...
The goddess of fortune does not smile. My HP is stripped all the way to zero. My body breaks apart...
Origin Reversion: Primal Revolve
The serious mode shared by raid monsters. It is a return to the original source, and at the same time a release that allows them to exercise their true power.
Q. So what does that actually mean?
A.
Munchy-tan: "Mama, I can't stand the pain of my body squirming around outside my control—"
????: "Oh, fine. I'll link you directly to me, increase your maximum tolerable capacity, and patch the missing portions with information output from the memory domain, alright? There, don't cry... You can do it by yourself now, can't you?"
Munchy-tan: "Yeah! (full killing intent) (basically an infinite bandana) (win with raw firepower)"