Mercenary Black Mamba

The fusion reactor increased its output. Tens of thousands of lines of electricity alternated the two horns and accelerated the resonance in the space. The population-inversed medium became plasma within a millionth of a second.

Super high temperature and pressure distorted the space like a scene seen through a fisheye lens. The electrified particles burned up the sky.

"What is it doing?"

They were butchering a chicken with a blade made for cows. It was like they were launching a missile to kill a fly. Black Mamba, startled, buried himself into the ground. Garuda's white-hot eyes exploded into a pillar of a laser.

The pillar of light scoured the area with a diameter of 2,000 meters. Space was distorted and the world was covered in white. The Gazelles and Little Birds, which soared after giving up attacking the ground, were swept up in the pillar of light.

The supra-high-temperature atomic laser disintegrated the six helicopters to atomic levels. The machinery and the humans inside vanished without any remains as if they were erased by an eraser in a flash. In the empty space, boiling ozone scattered like an aurora.

The photon cannon that engulfed three helicopters struck the ground horizontally. Unlike a chemical laser, an atomic laser was accompanied by a gravitational wave. The plasma of 100,000 degrees Celsius charged, razing the jungle at the speed of light.

The destructive flame charging at the speed of light directly struck the ridge of Apapura Mountain. The cap of the mountain exploded like a firework. Flame and debris covered the ground.

The result was destructive. The surrounding jungle was decimated. A hole 2,000 meters wide, 200 meters deep, and 10 kilometers long was made in the valley. The bottom and both sides of the valley melted by extreme heat that glinted like glass. A highway with 500 lanes called the Chicken Corridor was made.

A storm of 200 meters per second raged. Giant trees were uprooted and rocks swirled around. The rock Mu Ssang hid behind was also uprooted and swept away in the storm. The carbonized debris soared into the air like a volcanic eruption. It was a great act of arson.

"I knew this would happen."

Mu Ssang anchored himself with Thousand Ton Stomp and covered his head with his arms. Garuda was a planetary weapon that didn't differentiate allies from enemies. Before he could intervene, 10 helicopters were vaporized and the jungle was torn up. He knew the fate of the indigenous villages scattered across the Bunyakiri Corridor without looking.

"Mu Ssang, I'm here."

A gigantic body 200 meters long landed without a noise.

"What is this?"

"I exterminated vermin!"

Garuda stretched out its long neck and snapped back its head like a rooster that won a cockfight.

"You should selectively kill the vermin, not wipe out everything!" Mu Ssang yelled.

"I have no data to tell them apart. Selection would take a whole day. I protect you."

Garuda was adamant that it did the right thing.

"You drive me crazy!"

Mu Ssang pounded his chest. That's why he didn't call Garuda even though he wanted to. Artificial intelligence had no emotions. It only had logic.

No human cared what kind of ant they stepped on. Garuda vaporized the Gazelles that came to Mu Ssang's rescue, like walking across a swarm of ants. Any mourning would be too late. The victims must be resentful.

"Why are you here? I didn't call you."

"Charcoal asked me."

"I will fry you if you lie like that."

Mu Ssang glared. Kamdoong and Chicken were mortal enemies. Garuda would never heed Kamdoong's request.

"Yeong-a told me to go."

Garuda averted its gaze.

"Yeong-a did?"

Mu Ssang was surprised. Garuda was not an animal but artificial sentience, not something Yeong-a, an animal ESPer, could communicate with.

"What did the monk do to the girl?" said Mu Ssang in his mind.

Mu Ssang was suspicious. His teacher was someone who was capable of unexpected acts.

"I am not sure. Things will work out."

He shook his head. The deed was already done. It was no use to lecture Garuda.

"Duck down!"

Mu Ssang kicked the ground and jumped in between Garuda's horns. The cause of the catastrophe in the Bunyakiri Corridor floated up in the air.

* * *

The auxiliary space in the intelligence room of the Green Camp.

Lamartin was submerged in meditation for a fortnight. Neutrinos swirled past Lamartin like a gentle wave. The long-awaited Baphomet finally showed itself.

"It's just as I expected."

Two blue lights flickered on and off in the pitch-black darkness. He had entered the retreat because of his unstable avatar but also to rearrange the past time when a flying UMA appeared.

Lamartin possessed clairvoyance. Clairvoyance allowed one to see the past and future. It wasn't as good as Dae Woo's clairvoyance, but with a proper medium, he could rearrange past events and when conditions were met, they could see the future.

He tracked the flying UMA for two weeks as if he was rewinding a videotape.

The Baphomet, depending on its origin, was categorized into either Betera (the old) or Ortmicon (the new). Betera referred to the beings that inherited the genes of ancient sentient beings and the artificial lifeforms created by the same sentience. Ortmicon referred to the sentience that came to Earth from a far-out outer universe and their families.

Among Betera were Lamartin, Dae Woo, Ocelot, who was missing, and Black Mamba. Now, there was the flying UMA too. Other than these, the rest were all fake and low-grade.

Among Ortmicon were his friend Nialatep and Ramasu, who was Nialatep's kin. The unidentified Illuminati gunner could be one too, but there was no way to be certain.

Lamartin was obsessing over Garuda because of Ramasu. If Nialatep could control Ramasu with his mind, he could surely control an artificial Betera Baphomet that shared the same origin as him.

He felt a signal.

"Could it be Nialatep?"

He pressed his thumb onto his temple and spread out his palms like antennae.

"My old friend, was it really the gravitational wave?"

It was the thought wave of Nialatep who was in a retreat in the Orangniki valley.

"It's very close by."

"What do you think?"

"We should capture it. I'm thinking of deploying Verriere and Oeilet hidden in the Bunyakiri Corridor."

The high Super Grendel Verriere not only had Lamartin's genes. It also had the Ramasu's genes that withstood the harsh conditions of outer space. Even if they don't get to defeat him, they won't be defeated easily.

"Can a replica match the original? Should I send Ramasu there?"

Verriere was strong but Baphomet was legendary.

"Don't. The last time, Ramasu attracted the wretched monk with its frenzy. I will cooperate."

"Then we can do it. Did you find the trace of the humanoid Baphomet?"

"I don't get it, but he's in the same area as the flying Baphomet."

"Beware. Night Gaunt was killed."

"Worry not. The people here are responding well."

The switch was flipped on its own. Darkness fled like a receding tide. The hand shriveled up like an old tree picked up the receiver.

"Huey, awaken Verriere and Oeilet."

"Aye, I heed the Grandmaster's call."

The switch flipped. The space was enveloped in darkness.

"Come quick, my servant, my power. Hahaha."

There was a burst of freakish laughter in the dark.

* * *

Garuda stopped in its tracks as it went up in the atmosphere. Its scouter detected a life form approaching them rapidly.

"Two flying insects with combat power of 150,000 MF and 30,000 MF each. Approaching us from 40 kilometers away."

"They are tremendous."

When one entered the four-dimensional space provided by Garuda, one shared its sensory organs. As if on a screen, a supersonic flying object approaching them was projected in their field of view. It was the flying Super Grendel McKinley mentioned.

It looked like the Gargoyle in mythology. It was 300 meters long and its tail was 100 meters. It looked like a bat and was almost as big as Garuda. The Grendel arrived five kilometers from them in an instant.

"It's so ugly."

Its entire external appearance was unsightly but its glinting big eyes were the most unsettling.

"It may be ugly but will be delicious just the same. Shall I eat it?"

Garuda salivated. An insect with higher combat power tasted better. The one Garuda ate on the shore only had a combat power of 1,000MF. If it consumed that thing with 150,000MF, it could raise its own combat power.

"First, check its combat power."

"Fighting will ruin the taste."

A plasma shield enveloped Garuda's body. A Super Grendel that looked like a Gargoyle struck first. Its front paws as big as the blades of 10 bulldozers struck each other at ten times the speed of sound. It was Cavitation, Verriere's special skill.

A 250-dB shockwave struck Garuda. The space shimmered like waves. After the sonic wave attack, a mass of air heated to 3,000 degrees Celcius struck directly at a speed of Mach 3. The plasma shield was fortified with a deafening hum.

The mass of air exploded. Garuda, covered with extreme heat and pressured shockwave, was pushed far back. The ground swept by the shockwave was destroyed. Rock faces collapsed and tens of thousands of trees were uprooted and snapped.

The bat-shaped Oeilet opened its maw as big as a swimming pool. A pillar of highly acidic gas shot forth. Once it struck the shield's plasma, the gas pillar exploded and was vaporized. The dark red gas cloud exploded and Garuda was engulfed in flames.

"It's burning!"

The successive attacks thinned the shield and its micro-lattice hide glowed in heat. The space in the cockpit was heated up like an oven.

"Mode: Protect Mu Ssang. Activated."

The chilly air swirled. The oven was suddenly a fridge.

"That was impressive. The Gargoyle must be the high Super Grendel Verriere and the bat must be a mid-tier Grendel Oeilet. The turtle, octopus, and serpent were said to be low-tier. It was really incomparable."

Mu Ssang ended his remark. Those were extreme asymmetric power. Even dozens of fighter jets wouldn't be a match. A fight with these would prove to be exhausting.

Verriere disappeared from the screen. The Garuda was pushed back when Verriere struck it with its body. It could even teleport. Oeilet jumped on Garuda and grasped its head and twisted. The micro-lattice hide made a sound like metals grinding against each other.

Verriere wielded its tail. Its 100-meter tail struck the burning Garuda repeatedly. With its head in Oeilet's grasp, Garuda couldn't enter evasive maneuver and had to withstand the blows.

Verriere launched Cavitation from up close. Flames spread across the sky five kilometers around like fireworks. Garuda was flung back as if hurled by an invisible hand.

"Ugh!"

Mu Ssang screamed in the cockpit.

"My patience is running thin. Am I supposed to keep getting hit?"

"Do as you want."

The clash gave them a glimpse of their combat power of them. They were world-ending beasts that were to be eradicated along with Freemasonry responsible for their creation.

"Meat tastes better when cooked."

High-voltage electricity of 100 million volts struck Oeilet which clung to Garuda like a leech. A screech shook the night sky. The half-cooked gigantic bat was flung back. Its eyes were upturned and its carbonized scales dropped en masse.

"Oeilet, no!"

A scream was heard in the space under Ngpanwaza. Lamartin's avatar clutched his chest. Even with their power, the Grendels were no match to the Baphomet. When he channeled with the Super Grendels, they had the advantage of increased combat power, but they also shared the damage.

"Awaken!"

He tapped his temple with his thumb and made Dark Energy swirl around. The falling, fuming Oeilet opened its eyes abruptly. Its carbonized tissues were completely regenerated as if time had been reversed. Oeilet soared with a swoosh.

"It's weak but quite tenacious."

Garuda's third horn glowed white. When Garuda opened its beak, shimmering rings of lightning shot forth one after another. Oeilet, soaring rapidly, stopped as if it was caught in a spider web. Thousands of rings of lightning enveloped its body and turned. Oeilet screeched and squirmed.

"What was that?"

"An anti-gravity thunder web. It is used to store a sample in a live state," Garuda answered as if it was nothing.

"Quite impressive!"

Garuda indeed was a vermin eradicator. If there were God, the Concretus who created Garuda must be them. He feared what form the Chicken would take when it awakened another level.

Garuda went up in the atmosphere. A shockwave swept past the space.

"He is underestimating us!"

Garuda launched its accelerated photon cannon. Verriere balled up its body. There were sparks like fireworks and the gigantic body was flung back like a kicked ball. The Gargoyle, unlike the bat, was quite tenacious.

Garuda accelerated rapidly. Its gigantic claws struck Verriere's head. Verriere flailed with its claws in retaliation. It was quite as powerful as Ramasu. The claws penetrated the plasma magnetic field and intertwined with Garuda's claws.

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