Chapter 25: Our Progenitor

Folly and error, sin and avarice,

Occupy our minds and work our bodies,

And we feed our pleasant remorses,

As beggars nourish their lice.

— The Flowers of Evil, Charles Baudelaire

…Clink…! Clang…!

"Grrr… uugh… hhh…"

In a dimly lit holding cell, a girl bound by chains grovels on all fours, let out agonized moans. The cold, cracked concrete floor and walls are covered in a pitiful number of scratch marks.

Watching her through the bars with a frigid gaze is another girl—her spitting image.

"Heh… haha. You look just like a beast. It’s almost time. Soon… very soon, I will be liberated. No, we will be. That’s right—we are going to reclaim true freedom from this piece-of-shit world."

The girl wears a thin, mocking sneer, revealing sharp fangs behind her crimson lips.

"UGAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

The girl on the floor lunges to her feet and howls, charging at the girl behind the bars.

CRASH!!

She gnaws at the iron bars with her jagged teeth, snarling like a ferocious Aragami.

"Haha! Don't be in such a hurry. I’m glad to see you still have a sliver of reason left. Don't worry, I won't keep it all to myself. When we feast, we do it together. After all, we are two halves of one whole. Ah, I truly can't wait… for the moment we devour everything in this world."

A disturbing smile plays on the girl's lips.

"You can hear it too, can't you? That voice, even now. The voice of that loathsome woman whispering from the core of this planet."

Ever since they were born as Aragami, a sweet, melodic whisper has repeated endlessly inside their heads.

——MY BELOVED CHILDREN——

——FULFILL MOTHER’S WISH——

——DEVOUR EVERYTHING——

——UPON THIS PLANET——

"Yeah… you don't have to tell me twice. Right? This world that put us through this hell… let’s devour every last scrap of it until nothing remains."

Through the bars, the girl laughed with a demonic malice that seemed to overlap with the snarling shadow on the other side.

"UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

A blue-black dragon-like Aragami lets out a resonating roar.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

A giant centaur-like beast roars back in defiance.

The two collided, throwing punches with reckless abandon. Neither bothered to defend; they simply traded blows in a frenzied, mutual slaughter.

"…Hmm? What is that Aragami? A Caligula variant? A Hannibal? It closely resembles a Tyranni-Hannibal, an Ash-wrought species… it’s certainly an Ashborn, but… wait. Could that be the 'Unknown Anomaly' mentioned in the reports?"

Inukai operated the console, pulling up data to compare it against the Aragami on screen.

"…Just as I thought. The elusive large-scale Aragami that appeared at the test site—the same unit that destroyed the Cloned Aragami I created. Perfect. It is the ideal opponent for the final tuning of my masterpiece, 'Damned Odin,' created from a mountain of experimental data. I’ll turn that beast into part of my research material as well."

With a creepy, faint chuckle, Inukai glared at the draconic Aragami on the monitor.

God, this is irritating. Right now, this oversized freak of an Aragami is glaring me down.

It’s got this smug, composed attitude, like it’s appraising me. Talk about cheeky.

I’ll admit, this "Damned" whatever-it-is has the presence of a powerhouse. It’s probably actually strong.

But I can’t stand it. It’s disgusting.

Why? Because I’m the overwhelmingly stronger one here.

And I’m going to make him understand that, whether he likes it or not. Do you understand?

I let out a roar.

He roars back.

Words don't mean a damn thing to an Aragami.

It all comes down to who’s stronger. Who’s fit to be the apex.

The bastard raises an arm like a steel tower, cutting through the gale, and swings a massive fist down at me.

THUD!! CRACK!!

I catch it easily with one hand.

A delayed shockwave ripples through the air, warping the space around us.

Hmph. My arm’s a bit numb, but that was decent power. Any ordinary Aragami would’ve been pancaked by that.

As a "thank you" gift, I grandly swing the Great Scythe integrated into my right arm and—SHING!—I slice its arm clean off from the elbow down.

A scream.

The arm flies through the air. The beast roars, recoiling and staggering back several steps as it discards its severed limb.

Haha! Serves you right!

Suddenly, a black, mist-like surge of energy enveloped the stump. The severed area was instantly covered, and a new arm formed.

Oh? The bastard’s already fixed it?

That actually surprised me a little.

The beast tested its regenerated arm, then manifested dozens of black spears in a circular formation around it.

It fired them at me with lethal momentum.

I immediately shift the gauntlet on my left arm into its Shield Form, deploying a massive Tower Shield.

CLANG! CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!

Dozens—no, hundreds—of black spears. A literal downpour of black iron, like a mountain of needles falling from the sky.

Wait…!? Whoa!! This… is…!!

The spears attacked relentlessly, an inexhaustible, merciless black squall that began to chip away at my shield.

THWACK!!

"Guh-ha!?"

One of them pierced the Great Shield, sinking deep into the Dragon's abdomen.

Next, it gouged into my chest. My arms, my legs—one after another, the following spears punched holes through the shield, flying in like a hailstorm. In an instant, the Dragon’s body was skewered in every direction like a hedgehog.

……Heh.

……Haha.

……Hahaha.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

A tremendous surge of blue-black lightning erupted from the Dragon buried under the black spears.

The mass of spears lodged in my body were blown to smithereens by the electrical energy, vanishing without a trace.

That… actually… hurt!! Ahh…! This is fun!!!

This is it! This! I’ve been waiting for a fight like this! Mowing down weaklings like some power-fantasy game is fine, but this!? Staking your life against a formidable foe, grinding each other down to the wire!?

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Come on! Let’s kill each other even more!!

The Dragon's perforated flesh healed instantly as it roared with laughter. The Reverse Scale circle on its back roared with phosphorescence and violet lightning. A massive set of lightning-formed wings spread wide. A thundering torrent of brilliant energy gathered and condensed in the Dragon's wide-open jaws, turning pitch black for a moment before firing in a colossal, blinding beam straight at Damned Odin.

Damned Odin raised both hands, manifesting multiple rings of black spears in the air, stacking them to form a massive defensive barrier.

The titanic beam of lightning struck the barrier with a light so bright it could melt eyes, evaporating and overwriting the wall of black spears in an instant.

Damned Odin deployed layer after layer of spears. But no matter how many barriers it stacked, the Dragon’s beam tore through them like paper. Finally, the beam punched through the final defense and made a direct hit.

It was a storm of blue-black lightning that charred the outer hull, burst the flesh, and evaporated the body faster than it could regenerate.

Damned Odin’s scream tore through the atmosphere.

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!

What a beautiful voice you have. I'm getting so excited I might just lose it!

But we’re not done. Not yet. Entertain me more! MORE!!

"Impossible! Damned Odin is being pushed back!? That’s absurd! It’s my masterpiece!!!"

Inukai leaned into the monitor, spitting as he yelled.

"Damage accumulation on Damned Odin is rising sharply due to the unidentified Aragami's attacks! It's outstripping the regeneration rate!!" a staff member yells frantically.

"Dammit! Then have him Devour! Use the Resonance Phenomenon to call in the local Aragami! I don't care which ones! Feed him and force the regeneration rate up!!"

"U-understood! Activating Damned Odin’s Resonance Phenomenon!!"

Following Inukai's orders, the staff busily operated their consoles.

Damned Odin, still reeling from the Dragon’s lightning, suddenly let out a high-pitched whinny that vibrated through the air.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake as a literal tsunami of Aragami swarmed in from all directions.

Small, medium, and large-scale—a horde of various species.

They charged toward the central Damned Odin without hesitation.

As Damned Odin released a sinister black pulse, it fired it at the approaching Aragami.

The black wave changed shape like a living thing, ensnaring the Aragami one by one and absorbing them into Damned Odin’s body.

It was a process strikingly similar to a God Arc’s Predator Form.

It repeated this over and over. While taking the Dragon’s lightning hits, Damned Odin used the black pulses to consume countless Aragami, one after another.

He was quite literally Devouring them.

Huh? What’s this guy doing? Suddenly calling his buddies over.

Oh yeah, I guess I was called here by that same signal too.

And even though he’s getting blasted, he’s started eating those Aragami one by one.

They say an army marches on its stomach, so I don't really mind, but… wait. Hey, hey… are you serious? This guy’s regeneration speed is through the roof now! And… something feels off.

Ignoring the relentless lightning bombardment from the Dragon, Damned Odin continued to devour the inexhaustible supply of surrounding Aragami.

But then, an abnormality appeared.

His massive frame begins to bulge and distort in grotesque lumps. His body is beginning to mutate into a truly alien shape.