Above Your Head

Chapter 28: Awakening (2)

[The chance of victory is less than 1%.]

"Damn it!"

I gritted my teeth, then turned around and stormed out of the workshop. I didn’t know if it was possible, but in the worst case scenario, I might have to escape from the ship.

However, as I was just leaving the workshop, I discovered some people running.

"Kreuk! I found a crewmate! There'll be more of them if we follow him!"

"Leave one squad alive and kill the rest of them, and then we’ll head for the bridge deck!"

A group of monsters were running while shouting, and they were truly creatures with bizarre appearances.

If extraterrestrial beings such as Celestia and Alaina who worked on the spaceship were not extraterrestrial beings but just ‘humans’, then these beings in front of me were obviously extraterrestrial beings.

"Oh my God."

It's weird. Their appearances were hard to describe. If I were to explain……

'They look like spaghetti.’

That’s right. It didn’t have to be spaghetti, but they had a reddish-colour that was somehow similar to a type of noodle(?).

They looked like spaghetti rolled with a fork and had dozens of tentacles that formed their bodies which laid on the floor. Furthermore, the dozens of tentacles intertwined to form four or five hands that had three fingers each, and each of the hands was equipped with firearms.

And they had eyes coming out from the middle of all that.

The killing intent that oozed from the big eyes the size of my head was intense enough that it stung, and it creeped me out just by making eye contact.

"Ah…"

I tried to turn around and run away, but my feet wouldn't move.

I wasn’t overwhelmed, neither was I tied by some sort of psychokinesis skill.

It’s just that his killing intent, and my death portrayed by that killing intent, turned into a sense of fear and suppressed my mind.

Of course, I was able to shake off that killing intent after a short while as I had pretty strong mental prowess, but the situation had already escalated too far -- they had morphed into a straight line like a nocked arrow with their guns on one end aimed at me; that couldn’t possibly be done by humans!

"Die, filthy humans."

I clenched my teeth at the sight of him roaring.

Needless to say, I didn't have the skill to avoid the gun that was pointing at me. I couldn't teleport like Dong-min, nor could I put up a protective shield like Bo-ram.

But as I was in the face of death.

Poowoong!

A light beam emitted from behind me and penetrated the tentacle monster’s eyes.

Perhaps because his big eyes also acted like the brain, with that one shot, his big body instantly fell apart.

"Kreukkkk! What’s going on!"

"It's the machine disease!"

"Kill him!"

And the other troops that were behind began to flock towards me.

I shouted as I was drowned in fear, "Close the door!"

Boom!

The door that used to close slowly while going ‘kii-kii-kiing’, and made me feel like my insides were going to explode, surprisingly shut in an instant, as if it was waiting for this one moment.

The momentum of the door closing was so fast that it would’ve instantly killed one of the demi-humans that was running towards me if it was caught by the door.

"Huff... huff... I thought I was going to die for a second there. Thank you, Genie!”

The Metal Body that was on stand-by at one corner of the workshop had shot the photon gun from behind me. It was Genie’s alter ego that was stationed here to assist me; because I could only see the issues of the machines, and I couldn’t do anything else.

Genie’s alter ego was just a mannequin-like Metal Body, but somehow, without camouflaging, she looked at me and said.

[I'm sorry, but the lady is busy right now and can't afford to pay any attention here.]

"...Ares?"

[Yes. I helped you because you looked like you were going to die. But...]

Ares said reluctantly while briefly in control of the Metal Body.

[Why is the God of War’s Treasure Trove listening to you?]

"Treasure Trove?"

I didn't understand what he said and questioned him. But then…

Kabooom! Boom!

There was an explosion beyond the door. The troops outside were trying to break in, but the huge metal door didn’t even shake, putting their explosion to naught.

A perplexed voice came from beyond the wall.

'What the hell! Why won't this door break!'

‘It can even withstand bombings! It’s protected by a weird power!’

'It must be an important facility. For now, report it to the superiors and let’s head for the bridge deck!'

I could hear a few more explosions, but soon, their presence disappeared.

I approached the door pondering whether I should go out, but Ares's voice rang in my head, and he continued in a pathetic tone.

[Hey idiot. You're going to believe the enemy’s words? Just because they told you they’re leaving, you’re gonna take it at face value and go out? If you open the door now, you'll have a pretty hole in your head.]

"Huh? But their presence--”

[Dumb fool.]

My field of vision changed in an instant. Ares activated the Eye of Ares and showed me the situation outside.

Before I knew it, I was standing outside the door. The passage that I always took to get back to the dormitory was abnormally quiet.

-What the, there's no one... Shit.

I discovered them sticking close to the wall.

Surprisingly, these spaghetti-like bastards loosened their bodies and spread out like a carpet. It was a truly ingenious method, but I couldn’t help but notice it because one side of the wall was red which was unlike the usual.

-Seems like you saw it.

-Ahh, mmhm. I almost fell for it. I can't believe they can freely form their noodle-like body like that...

Don’t tell me, can those bastards connect their bodies together and form a long snake that’s tens of meters long?

And there were guns at both ends of their body. Just as Ares had said, if I had opened the door unknowingly, I would’ve had a hole in my head.

-That’s not all... I see. Does he not know much about himself? What has he been doing all these while?

I looked around while wondering about the things Ares was muttering about.

The state I was in, the state that the Eye of Ares activated, was similar to a kind of phantom state, so it was possible to pass through walls and move to other places just by focusing on my consciousness. Now that he was using it, I needed to at least figure out the current situation that was happening.

"Be careful, everyone!"

"Damn it, the squadron troops are in! They’re fully determined to wipe us out!"

There was a fierce battle going on all over the Albatross ship.

There were all sorts of enemies.

Some of them were the spaghetti-bastards I saw previously, and some of them were golem-like creatures made of rocks, and there were also octopus-looking creatures flying in the air.

Their appearances fit the name of demi-humans to a tee.

'Where are Dong-min and Bo-ram?’

I focused on my consciousness and found them.

They were fighting, blocking the barrage of bullets raining down between the tall walls in the residential area.

"Ugh, they look so disgusting.”

"There’s also a serious level of malice and killing intent. I can’t stand it any further."

Although they were not very close, they were still fighting together because they recognized the fact that they were both from the same hometown.

Moreover, Bo-ram, who belonged to a protection barrier-class, had a truly formidable defense capability, whereas Dong-min’s ability was focused on the offensive. This meant that the two of them had pretty good chemistry.

Bang!

A wheel-shaped demi-human mustered up power all over his body and charged like a wild boar, and crashed into Bo-ram's barrier, but he was stopped in his tracks.

His original role was to mess up the opponent's battle formation, and then help with his allies' charge, but he couldn't even break past one weak barrier with the destructive power that went beyond that of a heavy tank.

"Great job coming here."

And then Dong-min approached him and reached out into the air. In the air where there was nothing, a bottle of water appeared like magic, and Dong-min sprayed it on the demi-human.

Glug glug glug glug glug!!!

The demi-human whose charge was blocked wanted to turn around and back off, but a part of the demi-human’s body that was sprayed with water froze. And Dong-min's body blurred for a moment.

Crackle!!!

“Kuwaackk----!”

A painful scream erupted as a part of his body was shattered, but regardless of that, Dong-min shoved his hands into his wound.

"Fortunately, there’s blood flowing.”

And then, the movement of the squirming demi-human slowly stopped.

To my disbelief... Dong-min froze the demi-human’s blood itself by shoving his hand inside his body.

No matter how bizarre an extraterrestrial being is, if the blood inside their body was frozen, he wouldn’t be able to survive, and soon his body stopped moving entirely.

"Pretty good ehh. It's a waste of fighting power to be used to guard a Maintenance Officer though? A Barrier Master who’s reached the level of a Compléter, with more than four types of complex abilities."

*

"You're amazing too, Unnie! I've never seen a Sword Master as strong as Unnie." Bo-ram exclaimed.

"Don’t call me Unnie. Call me Squadron Leader. And I’m not a Sword Master, I’m a Swordsmanship Compléter."

Kwakkkkk!

Then, the squandron leader swung her greatsword like lightning, and the spaghetti that was rushing toward our troops was cut into pieces as if it had entered a shredder. The squandron leader only swung the sword once, but there were dozens of sword waves hidden in the swirling bladestorm that followed the swing.

"Squadron Leader-nim! A group of people destroyed the wall and they’re heading for the bridge deck!"

"Genie has informed us that additional enemy troops have entered the ship! We're getting the defense system working as hard as we can, but it’s not good enough! Moreover, the enemy’s electrical attack is weakening Genie's control!"

Among the incoming reports, not a single one of them were good news.

Although the situation was really grim, the Squadron Leader had an indescribable expression.

"They could just destroy the ship as a whole, so why would they take the risk by infiltrating the ship? Are they perhaps trying to seize the ship? But that can't be possible with the Captain on board..."

It was extremely difficult to capture enemy ships in a universe war.

It would be possible if the crew surrendered for fear of sinking along with the ship, but there was no way that the crewmates of Albatross would surrender. At least not against the demi-humans famous for not keeping human prisoners alive.

Perhaps it was possible if the enemy pushed hard at the ship with overwhelming force so that we wouldn’t have any room for resistance, but wasn’t the Transcendent, Major General Chun Hyun-il, on board the Albatross ship?

"Did you identify any Transcendents among the enemy ranks?"

"None so far! Furthermore, no matter how we look at it, there’s no way the enemy’s Transcendent-grade will directly enter the Terra-class ship personally, right? To put it bluntly, if we blow ourselves up, it will be impossible for even a Transcendent to survive."

The Terra-class ship, Albatross, had a Terra-grade Iron Heart, and the energy generated was beyond measure.

Not only was the Terra-grade Iron Heart capable of completely covering the energy reserves used by a ship that exceeds the size of a decent city, it always had spare room; Which meant it could afford to create a bombardment strong enough to devastate a planet and form a shield powerful enough to immerse in a sun-like star and still maintain a comfortable time for more than three days.

They were fighting to somehow survive right now, but if it was certain that we were going to lose the battle, Genie would operate the self-destruct system without hesitation according to the rules of war.

And if a Terra-grade Iron Heart was pressurized and became a magical energy bomb, there would be a huge explosion that would easily blow away a whole planet.

If an Iron Heart was pressurized, even if it was a Transcendent, they wouldn’t be able to survive if they were nearby. If you were caught up in a magical energy bomb explosion that screws up the surrounding Mana, it’d be impossible to teleport or do anything, and they wouldn’t be able to even maintain the strong layer-like high-grade energy for too long anyways.

Although there were many precedents where monster-like transcendents survived even in black holes, but even so, the consensus of opinion was that no one could survive a Terra-grade magical energy bomb explosion.

-It's quite disadvantageous…

-Did you not take me seriously when I said there wasn’t a chance of victory?

Ares continued pathetically, but I ignored him.

I refuse to believe that we don’t have a sliver of chance for victory. Even if there isn’t a speck of possibility, then all it takes is to create that possibility. I felt that it was too early to lose hope.

-Oh, come to think of it, Ares. How did you control the Metal Body earlier? Furthermore, to even be able to use the gun that couldn’t be unlocked without Genie’s permission.

-It's just a simple Ability. It’s called King of All Armaments, and it is capable of controlling most weapons without an owner.

-You can use an Ability even without a pilot?

I questioned back because I was dumbfounded.

Ability is the skill of a pilot to project intent on a Gigas or a ship's Iron Heart, and a pilot must have excellent piloting skills as well as these abilities to receive recognition.

But the Ability, which was the purpose of the pilot's existence, was used by a lone Gigas?

No, wait, come to think of it, the Eye of Ares must also be an Ability.

-Tsk tsk. What do you think God-rank Gigas are? Unfortunately, the Transcendence Weapon was already invoked, so maintaining it is the limit, my user’s ability has already disappeared, but if it’s my own Ability, I can use it anytime I want. King of All Armaments especially, targets most weapons without a defense mechanism, so not just Metal Bodies, but even Gigas can be remotely controlled. Not only that, I...

Ares' boasting time began yet once again.

Unbefitting of his size, he really likes to brag, and he’s the kind of guy that talks endlessly if you leave him be.

The problem was that he wasn’t just showing off mindlessly, it was all true. However, I raised my right hand to stop him from continuing. Because new enemies appeared on the battlefield.

"Hmm? What the hell is that? Is that a slave?"

"Does anybody know that girl?”

"She’s not on the crew list. But she looks too shabby to be on their side...”

The new enemy that appeared was a Tool-rank Gigas that was about three meters tall. But if it’s a Gigas, our troops also had many Gigas, so it was nothing new.

Rather, what caught the people's attention was the Gigas dragging out what seemed to look like a little girl, holding onto the leash as though dealing with a wild beast.

...A little girl?

It had the form of a little girl.

Her whole body was bound in chains, and a dog collar hung around her neck.

Her long hair was longer than her height, dragging on the floor, and she was expressionless.

Kiinggg--! Chiiikingggg! Chwareukkk!

And then all kinds of defensive weapons started popping up from all directions. All kinds of automatic weapons and dozens of Metal Bodies appeared.

"What!? Genie, what are you doing? You’re supposed to take them out only after more enemies come in!”

[No! It’s dangerous! Please attack! We have to kill that monster immediately!]

"What? What do you mean by monster? What’s wrong with you, Genie? Say it properly."

The Squadron Leader expressed her doubts, but Genie began to attack regardless of what she said. The automatic weapons and turrets began to shoot a barrage of bullets and missiles with strong force, regardless of whether or not the inside of the ship was destroyed or not, and Metal Bodies began to charge at the enemy with a Lightsaber.

But before that could happen, the little girl bound by chains opened her mouth first.

[Ahhhhhhhhh-------!]

It was an outcry. It seemed to penetrate through our brain, but at the same time, it was a very sad and mournful cry.

And the situation changed drastically with that cry.

Wiiiiingggg…...

All the automatic weapons that were shooting out barrages of bullets stopped working and died down in silence.

The Metal Bodies, which looked like beautiful desert dancers, were rushing at the enemy with a Lightsaber; but they returned to being a lifeless body and fell on the floor.

"Wha-, what the hell is this? Genie? Genie? Are you all right?"

'Ack what the hell! The battlefield information system is jammed!'

Everyone looked at the girl, bewildered by the unimaginable situation.

The little girl looked as if she wasn’t aware of her actions, and the Gigas dragged the expressionless child back by the collar.

Screams and shrieks burst out among our troops.

"Le-... Legion! Those scumbags have finally gone crazy!"