Chapter 149: Unexpected Attack

“Hey!! Over here!! We’re here, Eirwen!! We finally made it! Things are absolutely crazy out there. There were so many monsters along the way!” Tanya shouts to Eirwen. The two were sent by their superiors to fight Nightmare, and they arrive in an area where flesh covers entire city blocks.

“From what they told us, I’ll attack first, Eirwen!! My power is more useful for testing the waters first,” Tanya says. She and Eirwen are alone because their superiors recognized that both of them have the potential to kill Nightmare or prevent her from escaping, but they need to keep the number of people nearby to a minimum. Besides, their abilities work well together, allowing them to support each other.

“Okay, I’ll back you up, Tanya!! Focus on killing that thing! We can’t let her escape and go after the others!!” Eirwen says, already prepared to cool the surrounding area to keep Tanya from overheating. Tanya quickly creates several small points of heat, even using the light bulbs as focal points to concentrate it. Then she fires them at the flesh.

The numerous mouths scattered across the flesh let out pained shrieks as the eyes begin turning toward the two girls. The flesh immediately gathers together, forming several bodies of Nightmare in different shapes.

“Who the hell are you brats!?” Nightmare speaks, her voice thick with hatred over the burns she has suffered.

‘So this is Nightmare… It’s unsettling to see her power in action… But we’ve already fought her in the simulator before!! All the Kairas on the island are fighting with everything they’ve got. We can’t let Nightmare get involved and interfere with them, especially Maya.’ Eirwen thinks as she stares at Nightmare, considering how to defeat her.

“So you’re the annoying monster Professor Zenith told us about!! We’re here to finish you off,” Tanya says as Eirwen protects them both from an attack with a wall of ice. The flesh tries to smash through the wall by brute force alone.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU! YOU ARROGANT BRATS!” Nightmare’s voice is filled with disgust and hatred. She’s even more aggressive than usual as she searches for Nadir and Zenith to destroy them. Eirwen rises onto an ice platform while Tanya begins firing beams of heat at Nightmare, who launches hardened flesh spikes at them.

The spikes change direction in midair, but Eirwen manages to maintain a solid defense. However, the spikes spin like drills, boring through the ice walls. It’s yet another power Nightmare has “copied” from a Kaira she’s encountered before.

“Tanya, be careful. I’ll do my best to protect you, but you need to stay cautious!” Eirwen tells Tanya, who nods.

“…” Tanya makes a gesture with her hand, prompting Eirwen to create an ice bridge connecting to a building so Tanya can cross. Meanwhile, Eirwen raises her ice platform much higher into the air.

Tanya slides across the ice and immediately fires an enormous beam of heat. She has been given permission to destroy multiple buildings in an attempt to eliminate the Nightmare. Tons of flesh are roasted until nothing remains.

“Weeeehhh!!!” Tanya is thrown upward along with a piece of the building as flesh erupts from the sewers. Nightmare has grown stronger thanks to all the flesh she’s accumulated over the past few months from anything she could find. Even other monsters have become food for her, allowing her to grow much stronger.

And as a safety measure, instead of keeping all her flesh on the surface, nearly 80% of it is hidden in the sewers, protected from attacks.

“[Are you two handling things okay? Do you need help?]” Ashlyn asks Tanya over the communicator. Tanya fires waves of extreme heat, forcing the flesh to retreat slightly, while Eirwen launches ice spikes that rain down on Nightmare. Both girls are trying to limit how far Nightmare can spread.

“We don’t need help! We’re doing fine! Like they said, our powers are perfect for this, and I’d rather we keep handling it ourselves. Other people would just get in my way. But how are Rouge and Edith doing?” Tanya doesn’t ask about Charlotte, knowing she must be fine.

“[Edith is helping with the medicine. She was sent underground to help the injured civilians, while Rouge is leaving the island. They said there’s a target, but they didn’t explain it very well. They just said they’re sending support to other places. And Maya is killing monsters with incredible precision and speed! She might stop by to help you two if you’re having trouble!!!]” Ashlyn explains quickly, despite her nervousness.

“HOW DARE YOU TRY TO TALK TO OTHER PEOPLE WHILE I’M RIGHT HERE!!” Nightmare’s flesh becomes even more aggressive, forming waves of flesh that bring down the buildings and towers, knocking Tanya and Eirwen off their ice structures.

Tanya fires concentrated heat that disperses slightly, creating thrust. She grabs Eirwen as she flies, struggling to stay airborne while using only one hand.

The flesh reaches the two girls, grabbing Tanya’s leg and dragging her down. It forms a dome around them, attempting to trap them both, but Eirwen uses an ice grenade. Starting from the point of impact, the cold spreads until it freezes all the flesh. Nightmare lets out a little shriek as the extreme cold brings the flesh to a complete stop.

‘That’s strange!? Why is she so aggressive?’ Eirwen quickly realizes that the Nightmare they’re facing now doesn’t match the description they were given. Nightmare was supposed to be childish, provocative, and annoying, but her current behavior is more aggressive, monstrous, and almost erratic, suggesting that something has changed.

“Not bad, hahaha,” Tanya says, unaware that something is wrong, praising Eirwen as she creates ice spikes that shatter the frozen dome. Eirwen doesn’t want to alarm Tanya over what might be nothing more than a change in personality, so she simply keeps doing what she’s doing.

“She seems to be underground. We need to finish her off!! We can’t let her get any farther down. There are so many people in the underground areas!” Eirwen says. She has figured this out primarily by observing how the heat and cold behave, and she quickly realizes one of the reasons Nightmare is moving through the sewers: she’s hunting for flesh.

“We’ll figure something out. For now, let’s get rid of the flesh up here!! And since my power is way too destructive and she’s in the sewers, you can freeze everything down there, Eirwen,” Tanya says, suggesting a plan. Eirwen ends up agreeing because she realizes it’s genuinely the best option.

Tanya has immense destructive power and can get rid of most of the flesh on the surface, while Eirwen can freeze all the flesh beneath the surface without causing nearly as much damage.

‘My ice power is strong enough that I can freeze the sewers without damaging the pipes or affecting the electricity running through the cables! Repairs would be much cheaper, and everything would be safer. We can get rid of Nightmare.’ Eirwen grows excited at the genuine opportunity they have to make a huge difference and reduce the risks for everyone.

Tanya clears a path for Eirwen to approach the sewers while Eirwen asks Ashlyn for a map of the sewer system so they can figure out where to freeze it.

…

…

…

“Urgh… That was painful, Nadir,” Zenith mutters as we climb out of the crashed ship. I look around and notice that Aurora Island is passing over a partially barren desert, so much of the landscape is covered in sand.

“I did my best, Zenith, but the impact broke the safety system. There was no way to activate the shock absorbers or anything like that.” I quickly look around. There are no monsters here, which is good.

“The island seems pretty far away, don’t you think?” I ask her. She looks toward the island, which is still moving. That means the monsters haven’t managed to stop it.

“It’s better this way. There are too many monsters on the island, but Nemesis is a special problem. Getting rid of her is our priority, and it’s impossible to do that with other monsters nearby, so let’s take it slow… Do you think she’s coming? Or did she lose track of us?” I ask as I check whether the weapons are working.

“I doubt she lost track of us, but she passed by pretty quickly. She must have gone very high up and landed some distance away from here. Let’s ask for help using what’s left of the ship. Nexus might still be operational… The two of us alone have no chance of beating Nemesis. We need at least five skilled people to provide support.” She climbs inside the wreckage of the ship while I keep watch over the surroundings.

Even if it sounds stupid for me to stay on guard, Zenith can sense things moving through space. There’s no way I could detect anything before she does, even when she isn’t looking.

‘That attack was so sudden… Zenith had already theorized that we’d become targets at some point, but this happened so quickly. It hasn’t even been a full year since she stole our blood… Is she really that afraid of humanity making progress?’ I find myself thinking that Nemesis is afraid. Afraid that humanity might develop a cure for the problem that monsters pose. That’s what it seems like.

This attack was clearly planned, but the fact that it was planned doesn’t change how desperate it seems. It’s far too quick for something done solely to eliminate us for the sake of her future security.

Zenith and I had even theorized that it would be at least two or three years before she came after us, precisely because anything sooner would seem far too desperate for a being who is humanity’s greatest enemy.

‘There’s no point thinking about that now… She’s here… And we need to deal with it.’