Shatter, shatter. The sound of crunching glass echoed through the room.
One by one, the cultivation pods burst, sending viscous cultivation fluid flooding across the floor.
The murky, pale liquid soaked the ground with a series of heavy splats.
Then, a pair of abominable feet landed in the mess.
They were bare. Or rather, they had been bare.
The toes were split into long, jagged shapes, and the joints were positioned with a subtle, inhuman wrongness. The creature stepped firmly onto the shards of broken glass without showing any sign of injury. There was no blood; the wet flesh simply crushed the hard fragments with reckless indifference.
The original silhouette was gone.
Whatever they were, they were based on a human template, but they were humans no longer.
These "things"—it felt more appropriate to call them creatures—nonetheless fixed their awareness on us as bipedal entities.
There were dozens of them, at a quick glance.
I wasn't sure what their combat capabilities were, but while I still had a moment to think, I decided to play a card.
"Junk!"
I called out to Junkhead, who had stepped forward to shield Lucia.
His mono-eye narrowed in acknowledgment. In an instant, he pulled two small iron cylinders from his person and tossed them my way.
I caught one in my hand and flicked my toe out to snag the other just before it hit the floor.
His handling of equipment was as rough as ever.
"The Repairman and I will settle things here!" Junkhead shouted to Kaya. "You stay back with Lady Lucia!"
Kaya glared toward the direction the Cult Leader had fled.
For a second, she looked like she wanted to spit a curse, but she quickly shook it off and nodded. Grabbing the arm of the worried-looking Lucia, she retreated toward the wall.
Alright. Time to work.
I gripped one of the cylinders Junkhead had thrown and activated Repair.
《Target: Coldot Corp Custom Heavy Machine Gun》 《Damage Rate: 99%》 《Repair? : Sufficient materials available》
Inside my head, I thought: OK.
The cylinder in my hand glowed blue.
Parts began to reconstruct from the center outward, following a mental blueprint. In a flash, the small cylinder transformed into a thick, long, rugged silhouette.
The weight made my arms sink.
It was a rotating heavy weapon the color of dull iron.
I braced myself, clutching the firearm—which weighed well over a hundred kilograms—with both hands. Ordinarily, this was a stationary or vehicle-mounted model, not something meant for a human to carry.
I yanked the trigger.
The internal drum began to spin, producing a sound like a beast’s low growl.
This wasn't the energy-type hybrid I had used on that rooftop.
This was a brutal, old-fashioned weapon designed solely to spray lead. And its power was absolute.
A roar followed.
An iron storm, pushing nearly a hundred rounds per second, carved lines of fire through the room.
It didn't just pierce the abominations; it tore them apart.
Arms, legs, and heads burst into clouds of blood and gore.
As I swept the muzzle horizontally, bullets shredded the remains of the pods, sending glass and cultivation fluid spraying in every direction.
The scents of gunpowder, chemicals, and blood fused into a single, sharp stench.
The walls were gouged with holes, and the indoor lights flickered erratically, likely because a distribution board had been riddled with bullets.
Pulverized concrete rose as smoke, tinting the air a dismal gray.
The whirring rotation of the gun slowly died down.
There was no longer any sign of life in front of me.
Behind me, Kaya was shielding Lucia, crouching over her to protect the girl from flying debris.
Lucia peered up at me from the gap between Kaya's arms, her eyes wide with shock.
"I suppose there was no turn for me?" Junkhead muttered, sounding almost disappointed.
That’s when it happened.
The chunks of meat scattered across the floor twitched with a wet, squelching sound.
Ignoring our wary gazes, the severed fragments of flesh began to crawl toward the center of the room.
Junkhead produced a handgun and fired several shots, but the movements only slowed momentarily. They wouldn't stop.
I hammered the Gatling gun into the growing mass of meat.
The bullets felt like they were simply sinking into the surface, gouging out holes that were immediately swallowed up.
Even targeting the individual fragments didn't change the outcome. Before I knew it, the thing had swollen into a mountain of flesh.
The mass reached toward the ceiling.
It rooted itself into the floor and walls, lashing out with several writhing meat whips to intimidate us.
What's next?
The moment the thought crossed my mind, a meat whip lashed out with terrifying speed.
Junkhead tried to dodge, but he wasn't fast enough.
He managed to bring his arms up to guard, but the sheer weight of the blow overwhelmed him. He was sent flying across the room, slamming into the far wall with enough force to embed him in it.
"Junk!!"
I tried to turn, but another meat whip was already lunging at my face.
"Tch!"
I clicked my tongue and ducked.
The Gatling gun I dropped hit the floor with a heavy thud.
I managed to evade the first strike, but the next one lunged straight at me.
I arched my back to parry it, barely avoiding a direct hit. Even so, the graze was enough to scoop a massive chunk of flesh from my right arm.
Heat and pain spiked in my brain a moment later.
Damn, what a monster...
The surface of its flesh was as abrasive as a grater.
I looked at my shredded right arm; the muscle fibers and the structure beneath were exposed. It was a gruesome sight.
I immediately used Repair on myself.
A blue light crawled over my arm, sealing the torn meat and severed tissue in an instant.
If this drags on, we're in trouble.
"Junk! You still in one piece?"
I kept my eyes on the creature while calling out to the wall where Junkhead was buried.
"Yeah. I must say, it certainly did a number on me."
I heard the sound of debris being shoved aside as Junkhead stood up.
Glancing back, I saw that Kaya had moved Lucia even further to the edge of the room. They weren't hurt, fortunately.
Junkhead’s clothes were shredded, and his exposed mechanical components gleamed under the flickering lights.
"I believe it is time to give them everything I have."
As he spoke, the abdominal armor of his torso slid open.
Revealed inside was a hollow space filled with circular energy lines.
It had been a while since I'd seen that.
I grinned and used Repair on the second cylinder he’d thrown me.
The blue glow flared.
A mortar-like mechanism, large enough to be held in both arms, was reconstructed.
I tossed the finished piece to Junkhead.
He caught it and slotted it directly into his abdomen.
The moment I saw him lock it in, I dove to the side to clear the line of fire.
Energy lines flared across Junkhead's entire body.
The power surged toward his abdomen—and a second later, a shockwave and a flash like a lightning bolt consumed the room.
The vibration hit before the sound.
The entire room—no, the whole facility—trembled with an impact so violent I had to shield my face with my arms.
A high-pitched ringing pierced my ears.
When it finally subsided, I slowly opened my eyes.
The room had been utterly transformed.
Stretching out in a straight line from Junkhead was a perfect cylindrical void, as if the room had been hollowed out.
The floor, ceiling, and walls along that path had melted like glass and then instantly solidified with a polished sheen.
The remaining scraps of meat were smoldering and bubbling at the edges. They were twitching, but the regeneration from before was gone.
I felt like whistling.
Junkhead’s trump card.
This was the inspiration for the Romance Cannon on my Road Stella.
Actually, this had more firepower than the vehicle-mounted cannon Cordeaux and I had demon-modded.
As always, Junk’s power source defied all logic.
Besides, my version was a reckless gamble that relied on my Repair Skill; he could fire this without his body falling apart, even if it drained his energy.
Man, he really hasn't changed.
Whether he noticed my exasperated look or not, Junkhead detached the abdominal part with a clunk and walked toward me, his sliding armor hissing shut.
"Heh heh. It has been a long time since I fired that, but it is truly magnificent."
His mechanical face didn't change, but the glow in his mono-eye was distinctly cheerful.
Good grief.
I guess we're more alike than I thought.
I looked over toward Kaya and Lucia.
Kaya was blinking and patting her head, probably dazed by the noise and the shock.
Lucia, on the other hand, looked like she’d completely lost her mind. Her eyes were spinning, staring blankly at nothing.
Yeah, they’re fine. Probably.
"Well then."
I kicked aside the mangled remains of the Gatling gun and rolled my shoulders.
"Time to go hunt down the Cult Leader."